The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-05-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON.

TALMAGES SERMON.
The Moral Effect ofsecret socie-
ties Discussed.
Their Respective Values Indicated by TIL cir
Objects-Labor Organisations Com
mended but Anarchy Condemned
Home the Best Society.
In a recent sermon at the Brooklyn Tab
ernacle, Rev. T. DeWi lit Talmage chose for
his subjectan inquiry into the moral eff
feet Of secret societies.
His text was:
Discover not a secret to another-P row.,
XIV, o.
In other words, secret societies, like in
dividuals, are good or bad, are the means
of moral health or temporal and eternal
damnation. All good people recognize the
vice of slandering an individual, but
many do not see the sin Of slandering an
organization.
There are old secret societies in this
and other countries, some of them centu-
ries old, which have been widely de-
nounced as immoral and damaging in
their influence, yet I have hundreds of per-
sonal friends who belong to them-friends
who are consecrated to God, pillars in
the church, faithful in all relations of life,
examples of virtue and piety. They are
the kind Of friends whom I would have
for my executors if l am so happy as to
leave any thing for my household at the
time of decease. and they are the men
whom would have to carry me
out to the last sldep when I am
dead. You can not make me be-
heve that they would belong to bad in
situations. They are the men who would
stamp on any thing Ubiquitous, and l
would certainly rather take their testi-
mony in regard to such societies than the
testimony of those who, having been
sworn in as members, by their assault
upon the society, confess themselv IS per-
jurers.
One Of these secret societies gave for
the relief Of the sick in 1873, in this coun-
try, 81, 400, 274. Some of the societies have
poured a very Heaven of sunshine and
benediction into the home Of suffering.
Several of them are founded on fidelity to
good citizenship and the Bible. have
never taken one Of their degrees. They
might give me the grip thousand times,
and would not recognize 1t. am ignor-
ant Of their passwords, and must judge
entirely from the outside. But Christ has
given us rule by which we may Judge
not only all individuals, but all societies,
secret and open es.
BY their fruits yeshall know them.
Bad societies make bad men. Good So
cieties make good mer. A bad man will
not stay in a good society. A good man
will not stay in bad society. Then try
all secret societies by two or three rules.
Test the first: Their inf uence on home,
If you have home. That wife soon loses
her influence over her husband who nerv-
ously and foolishly looks upon all evening
absence as an assault on domesticity. How
are the great enterprises of reform, and
art and literature, and benefcence and
public veal to be carried on if every man
is to have his world bounded on one side
by his front doorstep, and on the other
side by his back window, knowing moth
ing higher than his own attic or lower
than his own cellara That wife who be.
comes jealous Of her husbands attention
to art or literature or religion or charity
is breaking her own scepter of conjugal
power.
/ know an instance where a wife
though that her husband was giving too
many nights to Christian service, to char
liable service, to prayer-meetings and to
religious convocation. She systematically
decoyed him away until now he attends nc
church, waits upon no charitable institu-
ton, and is ON a rapid way to destruction,
his morals gone, his money gone, and ]
fear his soul gone. Let any Christian wife
rejoice when her husband consecrates
evenings to the service of humanity, and
of God, or charity, or art or any thing ele-
waiting.
But let no man sacrifice home life to Sc
cret society life, as many do. I can point
out to you a great many names of mer
who are guilty of this sacrilege They
are as genial as angels at the society
room, and as ugly as sin at home. They
are generous on all subjects Of wine sup
pers, yachts and fast horses, but they
are stingy about the wives dresses AND
the children's shoes That man has made
that which might be healthful infiu
ence q usurper Of his affections, and ht
has married it, and he is guilty of mora
bigamy. Under this process the wife
whatever her features, becomes uninter
csting and homely. He becomes critica
OF hcr, does not like the dress, does mo-
like the way she arranges her hair, il
amazed that he ever was SO unromantis
as to offer her hand and heart.
There are secret societies where mem
bership always involves domestic ship
wreck. Tell me that man has joined
certain kind, and tell me nothing NOR,
about him for ten years, and will writ,
his history If he be still alive. The maj
is a wine guzzler, his wife broken-heartet
or prematurely old, his fortune gone O
reduced, and his home mere name in
directory. Here are six secular nights ii
the week
what shall I do with thema'' says tn
father and the husband. II will give fou
Of these nights to the improvem mt an,
entertainment OF my family, either a
home or IN good neighborhood. will de
vote one to charitable institutions. / will
devote one tony lodge"
congratulate you. Here is a man VIII,
says:
ssOut of the six secular nights of tn,
week viii devote five to lodges aud club
and associations and one to the home
which night will spend in scowling lik
March squall, wishing was out spend
ing it as have spent the other fve.''
That mans obituary is written. Nc
one out Of 10000 that ever gets so far o.